08.27.08

Microsoft Vista and new office word are just terrible!

Posted in Technology Ventures at 9:15 pm by Ray Wu

I have never been so frustrated with the window upgrade before. Since I started with DOC 3x, I have been a loyal Microsoft user, but the latest changes in the Vista and Office are just terrible! Even after 6 months of using Vista, it raises my blood pressure once a while. The better look is traded off with poor functionalities and horrible performance. It seems that any directory with many files would take a long time to be viewed or copied. Microsoft Word is just cryptic, the menu shift seems intuitive until I try to find the option I am looking for. I wish Microsoft provides at least a way for me to just use the same menu as previous versions. Plus, many documents with hyperlink embedded now show as {HYPERLINK…} and I can’t seem to find a way to show the hyperlink as it was. I guess with this kind of improvements, there is no wonder Microsoft is losing its market share to the web 2.0 and apple fast.

07.25.08

China says its population of Internet users rises to world No. 1 at 253 million

Posted in Technology Ventures at 6:39 am by Ray Wu

This is quite interesting from the news:

China’s booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world’s biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday.

The latest figure on Web use at the end of June is a 56 percent increase over the same time last year, the China Internet Network Information Center said. It said the share of the Chinese public using the Internet is still just 19.1 percent, leaving more room for rapid growth.

The United States had an estimated 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online, a research firm. The Pew Internet and American Life Project puts U.S. online penetration at 71 percent.

06.05.08

Global Inflation and Opporunity

Posted in Technology Ventures, Random thoughts, Globalization at 10:10 pm by Ray Wu

Fed Chief Ben Bernanke talks about his worry on inflation in the last 2 days. The problem is that Fed can no longer control the pricing alone in this globally integrated market. Since 70% of US GDP comes from service sector, it is almost impossible to see how heavy inflationary environment in China and India is not going to have a significant impact on US. We have seen heavy demand on not only industrial commodities such as oil and gas, but also agricultural commodities like rice and pork. As a matter of fact, Costco is limiting number of bag of rice a person can purchase at one visit. As more of more citizens in the developing countries become richer, they will also seek better life that most Americans get used to: better and more food, a car, a house etc. Imagine several billion of people flood to this new demand curve and its impact on the overall resources? We as a human race will come up solutions to deal with this resource demand/supply gap overtime, but the shock is unavoidable. It is actually good for the digital economy because digital economy is based on bountifulness of unlimited supply (ie. 1M download of a software is not going to be add noticeable cost than a single copy of download). While physical economy gets more constrained, the digital economy would be in favor. For example, as airline ticket goes up, people would use virtual meeting more than flying to meet in person. I see a lot of opportunities for us in the valley to benefit from this trend.

05.30.08

Back to root

Posted in Technology Ventures, Globalization at 6:21 am by Ray Wu

After going back to China almost every month this year, I start to really appreciate my root a lot. Since I left China in 1986, there are tremendous amount of changes in that country every year. But it is only until recent few years I start to see not only infrastructure upgrade, but also human capital upgrade. For the first time, I see people make it big not because they have connections and know how to wine and dine, but because they work hard. I see government officials clearly and openly outline their 5 year plan and push hard to make change happen. I see construction and booming everywhere. The latest stats came out last month that consumer spending is growing 22% Y/Y in April 2008. As a matter of fact, China is the third-biggest consumer of luxury goods in 2005 that accounts for 12 percent of sales worldwide. The analysts expect China to be second-largest purchaser of luxury goods by 2015 and account for 29 percent of the world’s luxury sales. According to Goldman Sachs, China GDP will bypass US by 2040, but that’s assuming Chinese currency would stay flat. With current currency appreciation rate, I expect China GDP to pass US within the next 15 years. This is a figure business week mentioned in one of its articles a few weeks ago. From a technology perspective, China is the largest Internet countries in the world with 225M users and counting, 53% Y/Y growth in 2007. It is also the largest Cell Phone Market with 400M cell phone users vs 202M in the US at the end of 2007. Consider China cell phone penetration rate is only at 30+% vs 70% in the US, you can see why all the handset manufactures treat China as the most strategic target. So many possibilities and so little time…

05.20.08

What’s new?

Posted in Technology Ventures at 10:45 pm by Ray Wu

It has been a while since I blogged last time. I guess I dropped the ball here. With a new baby, various consulting and investing projects and traveling, it becomes hard for me to blog. I will try to do more going forward :)

Here is a picture on the Beijing street as the earth quake happened on May 12th. Luckily, my building was very solid that I hardly feel the building shake, but everyone was running.

bj_earthquake.jpg

11.27.07

Judge for the CODiE Award

Posted in Technology Ventures, Events at 9:14 pm by Ray Wu

I am delighted to be selected as one of the judges for the 2008 CODiE award. Similar to all the Hollywood awards, Codie Awards was established in 1986 as the only peer-recognition awards program of its kind in the high-tech industry, providing a unique opportunity for companies to earn the praise of their peers and competitors. It is for technology companies only, and very much focused on the software and digital content industries. I am excited to see nominations and interesting offerings they bring to the table.

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